What to do when “Ick” sets in…

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First of all, I have been waiting for ages to use that cute little pug on a graphic for my site. She is absolutely the most adorable thing ever and has been a popular one on several of the free stock photo sites that I use for awhile. But onward …

Have you ever taken a Briggs-Meyers personality test? I find them to be utterly fascinating. I vacillate between INFP and INTP depending on how truthful I am being with myself on any given day, or, at least, that’s how I am justifying that whole situation that makes absolutely no sense.

The “F” … that’s feeling. 😛 I don’t really like that thing where I see another person crying and tears well up in my eyes. It’s so bad that my nose got that funny “I’m going to cry” tickle while I typed that sentence. I don’t even know what is up with that. Stupid empathy. Stupid white hot tears that make my eyes burn.

I like the “T” so much more. It stands for thinking. I like to think.

I think about alllll kinds of things. As I scroll through Facebook, I think horrible thoughts about people who are badmouthing my husband who’s running for a local political office. (This is not the good Christian girl thing to do, I know. I’m a work in progress and sharing my truth.) I think about the tension I sit in between racism and good men in uniforms going down. I understand both sidesÂ but have no idea how to find a middle ground (in my brain or for a real life solution). I think about all of the books I would like to read, all of the TedTalks I’d like to listen to, all the gigs I’d like to play my french horn in, all the shows I have binge-watched, and about all the things on my list for tomorrow. That’s just the tip of the iceburg. I think. I think a lot.

I also think about how to fix things. I’m hard wired for it. I got it from my Daddy, I think. It’s why I can’t seem to leave my website’s theme alone, why I’m in the middle of rebranding my site, why I’m learning new graphic design programs and more. Just please don’t make me think about Geometry with my daughter. For the love. My brain is NOT hard-wired for that kind of thinking.

My T and F on the Briggs-Myers test Â score very closely and flip-flop. This is very very bizarre indeed if you start reading about what INTP and INFP behaviors should look like. What does this mean in real life? I feel deeply the things that my friends are going through. When they are depressed I ache with them. But it also means I have a tendency to want to analyze their situation. I want to come up with solutions. This isn’t good. Not good at all.

The last time this happened to me, I became overwhelmed and went to a bitter place in my heart. I had to take a break from all of the screens and go get myself grounded. There’s this quote that has been memed quite a bit in Christian social media. Also, I’ve decided meme should be a verb, not just a noun. Yo, Urban Dictionary? Got that?!

â€œFeelings are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate where your heart is in the moment, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to dictate your behavior and boss you around. You are more than the sum total of your feelings and perfectly capable of that little gift called self-control.â€ ~Lysa Terquerst

I was allowing my feelings to take over my thoughts and my heart. Have you ever done that? I feel pretty sure I’m not the only one, otherwise that wouldn’t have traveled so far and wide across social media.

During my break (it was really only 24 hours because I really like the Book of Faces too much to sign off for an extensive amount of time. Also, I have too many irons in that fire to walk away for an extended period of time.) I spent some time looking up some truths in the Bible to ground me. Truth should be the dictator, not the feelings. I found five great ones! You can go read about them over at Middle Places:

About Maria Davis

Maria is a mom of two teens, a coffee lover by day, tea lover by night, book nerd, crazy cat lady, a web designer, musician and a self-proclaimed geek bent on a life of embracing grace and sharing stories.